New York Gov. Cuomo: No budget unless abortion made legal for any reason until birth

By The Christian Post

New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo delivers his fourth State of the State address from the New York State Capitol in Albany, New York, January 8, 2014. | (Photo: Reuters/Mike Segar)

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is refusing to sign the state’s budget unless the legislature passes a bill that makes abortion up until birth for any reason legal in the state. He is also calling on the legislature to enshrine abortion as a right guaranteed in the state constitution.

Cuomo’s vow comes after Democrats retook control of the New York Senate in the 2018 midterm elections. The vow also comes as the Trump administration has worked to advance pro-life policies.

Now that conservatives have a majority on the U.S. Supreme Court, some abortion-proponents fear the possibility that a Supreme Court decision could one day overturn Roe v. Wade.

“The Republican senate said, ‘You don’t need a state law codifying Roe v. Wade. No administration would ever roll back Roe v. Wade,’” Cuomo said, according to The New York Times. “So help me God, this was the conversation.”

According to the language of the Reproductive Health Act: “Every individual who becomes pregnant has the fundamental right to choose to carry the pregnancy to term, to give birth to a child or have an abortion.” The act would also remove abortion from the state’s penal code.

According to the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, the bill has passed the Democrat-controlled Assembly in the past but has stalled for over a decade in the Republican-led senate. Many conservatives in the senate objected to the fact that it included language that would allow non-doctors to perform late-term abortions.

The newspaper reports that the legislature is expected to approve the bill on Jan. 22, which is the 46th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision.

“As many of you know, the Governor is pushing again for abortion through birth and even after with so-called ‘Reproductive Health Act.’ Now he has an anti-Life Democrat-led Senate to help him get it through,” New York State Right to Life campaign warned on Facebook Wednesday.

In a policy statement on the Reproductive Health Act, N.Y. State Right to Life explained that the legislation would lead to an increase in abortions and “expose mothers to increased dangers by removing protections currently in New York statute.”